Winter 2011
 Cover |  Contents Page 1 |  Contents Page 2 |
Articles from this issue:
 There’s not a more perfect place than the Piedmont to have your wedding A storybook wedding requires an ideal destination, one with fabulous scenery and attentive service, celebratory cuisine and dream decor.A place where wedding cakes tower and guests dance.Where families make memories.A place where a bride’s whimsy is satisfied and she is pampered to her fingertips.“Destination weddings allow brides to pull all the details into one package,” says Colt Nutter, executive director at Historic Jordan Springs near Winchester.“Instead of running all over to find a bakery, caterer, florist, musicians, and photographer, a bride can source all of these with one call to a destination such as Jordan Springs,” he said. Read more... |
| If this urban filmmaker can own his own side of beef, anybody can I have to confess, I wasn’t born a country boy.Rather, I grew up in a suburb and have lived in the center of cities.Only in the last few years have I lived in beautiful, rural Madison County.I’m still learning the basics of caring for the critters, fields, and forests that surround our house.Fact is, I’m glad no witnesses were present when I cut down my first tree — it fell into another tree and I had to pull it down with a rope attached to my car. Read more... |
 Middleburg-based Land Trust of Virginia helps ensure that spectacular properties like Bollingbrook remain that way forever A quote from the late Piedmont resident Audrey Windsor Bergner probably says it best: “We take our surroundings so much for granted, wanting to believe that the magnificent Blue Ridge will always remain as background to our lush green valley, that cows will always gently graze on our verdant fields, that corn will always grow green under summer sun, and the sound of the bugle will ever sound its rallying cry across the Piedmont.” If it’s up to the concerted efforts of the Land Trust of Virginia (LTV) — a nationally accredited non-profit based in Middleburg that protects open space, natural and historic resources — these luscious surroundings will continue to enrich the lives of many now, and for future generations to come. When private landowners place conservation easements on their properties, which voluntarily limit development, the land remains open for forestry, farming, and other sustainable uses.Currently, the LTV holds and stewards 106 easements, which translates into nearly 11,000 acres of private land in Loudoun, Fauquier, and surrounding counties. Loudoun County leads the number of acreage with 6,693 acres, followed by Fauquier, 2,300 acres; Greene, 1,179; Madison, 222; both Culpeper and Rappahannock, with 173 each; and Clarke, with 24 acres. LTV, in the words of its mission statement, “specializes in working directly with private landowners to design easements that protect open space, forests, water quality, bio-diversity, and historic values, while ensuring that farming, forestry, and other compatible uses can continue.” Thanks to the LTV, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, and other land trusts, Virginia has one of the highest concentrations of privately preserved land in the country. LTV President Birge Watkins, of Warrenton, and Linda Porter, of Paeonian Springs, one of LTV’s original founders and wholesale tree nursery owner, recently sat down at their office near Middleburg to reflect upon the Trust’s roots.“In the early 1990’s development started to really take-off. Read more... |
